Borrowing millions of online loans to gamble on Amazon? Loan fraud has emerged, and the seller owes a huge debt!

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It is almost mid-April. Cross-border sellers will not only face a series of marketing festivals such as Easter in Europe and the United States, Japan's Golden Week, and Mother's Day, but the horn of Prime Day, the most critical peak season promotion of the year, will also be about to sound.

Looking back at the recent period, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is unpredictable, the US dollar interest rate hike has led to capital outflows, and the epidemic situation at home and abroad is bumpy . The tense and complex international situation has added many obstacles to the cross-border journey of many sellers.

Therefore, as the peak season is approaching, sellers are facing more severe challenges while preparing for it. In particular, the repeated outbreaks of the epidemic have dealt a heavy blow to cross-border logistics. With supply chain obstructions and inventory turnover issues, sellers' cash flow pressure has doubled.

Bezos once said that a company's core competence lies in free cash flow. This is especially true for an asset-heavy platform like Amazon, where the slightest misstep could lead to store losses or even a break in the capital chain.

The butterfly effect of the 2020 epidemic caused a cross-border e-commerce storm to sweep the world. The myth of making money everywhere led to a huge explosion in this track. During the peak period, there were many sellers making a fortune every day.

However, as the dividend tide receded, the concerns of those who followed suit gradually emerged. In addition to basic expenses such as registration, office space facilities, and employee management, there are also subsequent operating investments such as procurement costs, first-leg freight, and product promotion fees, all of which require a large amount of capital as support.

To this end, many sellers choose to take out loans and take a gamble by joining this "Amazon gamble."

It was revealed that a seller entered the mask category in 2020, thinking it was the first opportunity to change his life. However, because he entered the market too late, he stockpiled 10 million goods and could not sell them. After three months of ups and downs, the 1 million funds were basically wasted.

This blow did not dampen the seller's confidence, and he then used online loans to enter the outdoor lighting category, borrowing more than 600,000 yuan from credit cards to major platforms such as 360 and JD.com. Unfortunately, the goods were sold out due to certification issues, and he eventually lost both money and goods, and had to live a life of avoiding being chased by suppliers.

  ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan

In the past 20 years, the cross-border industry has soared rapidly with the help of the right time and place. Many start-ups have smelled the potential of this track and flocked to it. However, many of them have seen their dreams of getting rich quickly shattered and left the market with regret.

Today, Amazon has bid farewell to the era of wild and extensive operations. The model of mass distribution and winning by volume is gradually being eliminated, and the intensive branding route is emerging. However, the road to branding is arduous, and while calming down, it also requires sufficient capital to maintain long-term business expansion and brand building.

Ensuring flexible capital turnover is the foundation for sellers to operate stably and the key to achieving performance breakthroughs. Especially in the current peak season preparation stage, too much stock may cause inventory backlogs, and funds will be consumed by storage and transportation costs. Product advertising and promotion also requires sufficient budget.

Under this circumstance, in order to fully cope with the peak season promotion, it is particularly important to make up for the cash flow shortfall. Therefore, many sellers choose to take out temporary loans to solve the turnover difficulties. As a member of Amazon's official loan program, Doushabao cooperates with banks such as Pufa Bank and uses technology capabilities to provide pure credit loans to cross-border e-commerce sellers, which are flexible and can be borrowed and repaid at any time.

For sellers who are under great pressure of inventory and have limited cash flow, choosing official loans may be a good way to solve their urgent needs. However, as this phenomenon becomes more and more common, many fraudsters have taken advantage of the situation and provided fake loan services.

It is learned that according to reports, there are scammers pretending to be Amazon officials, saying that they can help sellers register and open stores, and provide Amazon loan services to solve the problem of capital shortage in a short period of time.

Not only that, these scammers also lied that sellers do not need to repay the loans themselves, but instead help sellers make profits by connecting with third-party operators and then deducting repayments from the profits.

In addition, there are also scammers who obtain sellers' information by claiming to help them open stores for free, and then secretly provide loans, causing the sellers to owe huge debts of millions without knowing it.

This incident also serves as a wake-up call for sellers to guard against criminals committing fraud under the guise of loan services.

  ▲ The picture comes from Amazon Global Store

For sellers who are struggling to raise funds, it is best to choose to apply for a loan through official channels.